


Always Another Wound to Discover

by orphan_account



Category: Degrassi High
Genre: Fluffy, M/M, i don't know how this came to be but whatever
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-17
Updated: 2015-02-17
Packaged: 2018-03-13 11:00:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,634
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3379082
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This just happened one night? I dunno... Wheels takes care of Joey after Joey gets hurt in a fight.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Always Another Wound to Discover

 

Derek Wheeler knew that being a member of Zit Remedy meant that he rarely got a moment of peace, mostly because of Joey Jeremiah’s natural talent at getting them into painfully horrible situations that ended with them all getting into shit.

 

Wheels had always had a higher tolerance for Joey’s crap than Snake Simpson did, though even he had his limits at times. He couldn’t exactly put his finger on what it was that made Joey so amusing to him- even when he was getting them into serious trouble- there was something about in small boy in the fedoras that made Wheels smile and forgive him everytime.

 

Wheels sat alone in front of the desk in the living room, working on his homework and worrying about Joey. He was usually worrying about Joey, because Joey was usually up to something. Instead of the answers to his math problems, the conversation from earlier that day were running through his head.

 

_“Just ignore him, Joey.” Wheels advised, looking over towards Snake for help. Snake stood on the other side of Joey with Melanie Brodie gathering things out of her locker near by, watching him carefully. If the situation hadn’t been so serious, Wheels probably would have pointed her out to Snake. He still wasn’t sure about why the two of them weren’t together, as they clearly both had feelings for the other._

_“He’s such a jerk, though, he deserves to get his ass handed to him.” Joey punched his fist into his own hand, and then shot Wheels a cocky smirk that made his stomach jump in a way that Wheels just couldn’t explain._

_“That only person who will get their ass handed to them is you.” Snake laughed, shaking his head at Joey’s stupidity. Wheels glanced back and forth between his two friends, unsure of how to react to what was going on. He really didn’t want Joey to get into fight, he hated seeing Joey getting himself hurt. Snake, however, had so little faith that in Joey that it actually made him a little bit upset._

_“I’ll be fine.” Joey said shrugged, moving towards the exit to the school. The exit where Dwayne and his goons wouldn’t be standing guard, Wheels noted with mild amusement. Joey Jeremiah wasn’t that brave._

_“Don’t do it, Joey.” Wheels called after him as Snake moved away to talk to Melanie- and Kathleen by association._

_Joey just glanced over his shoulder and shot Wheels another smirk that made him feel terrifyingly weak in the knees._

 

There was a loud knock on the door, and Wheels groaned as he stood to answer it. His grandmother was out and had left him home alone, which gave Wheels some slight satisfaction. At least she trusted him not to run away again.

 

He opened the door and just staring in shock for a second.

 

Joey stood there, clothes ripped and bruises on his body that Wheels already knew were going to look much worse in the morning. His lips were cut open, and his nose was bleeding, too. Wheels suspected that at least one of his eyes- if not both- were going to black the next day.

 

“Jesus.” Wheels sighed, pulling Joey into the room.

 

“I think I got my ass handed to me, bro.”

 

Wheels pressed a bag of peas wrapped up in towel to Joey’s head. Joey jumped and gave a rather girly squeal, and Wheels couldn’t really hold back his laughter. The small boy glared at him and then settled for pouting.

 

“I assume you told your parents you were spending the night here?” Wheels asked, moving back towards the kettle to make some tea. He knew that Joey wasn’t the biggest fan of tea, but also thought that tea was comforting and he himself needed to comfort after seeing Joey all beat up like that.

 

“Yeah, just as a safety precaution.” Joey smiled at his own genius and Wheels fought the urge to roll his eyes.

 

“And what were going to do if you won- which was highly unlikely by the way, I told you not to do it.” Wheels asked, seating himself down across from Joey as he waited for the kettle to boil. “Where you just going to go home and tell them we got into a fight or something?”

 

He was used to Joey using him as a scapegoat. Both boys knew that Wheels would always cover for Joey, unlike Snake who- as good a friend as he was- worried too much and would probably totally loose it if Mrs Jeremiah called to check up on Joey and Joey had never been at Snake’s house. It sometimes hurt Wheels when Joey just assumed the Wheels would cover for him,even if he knew that it was with good reason.

 

In all reality, it only hurt Wheels’ feelings when he had to cover for Joey being at Caitlin’s house, but Wheels had yet to make that connection.

 

“Nah, I was going to come here.” Joey smiled, almost genuinely. “Celebrate my win with my favourite boy.”

 

Wheels was pretty sure he blushed, but the kettle saved him when it began to whistle. He stood and walked away, still holding the conversation over his shoulder.

 

“Wouldn’t you rather celebrate your win with Caitlin or something?” He asked, trying, surprised at how bitter his own voice sounded. There was distinct hesitation coming from Joey- whether it was Wheels’ tone of voice or something else, Wheels wasn’t entirely sure- before he answered with a forced laugh.

 

“Nah. Caitlin is Miss World Peace, she’d been so mad if she knew I’d gotten into a fight.”

 

Wheels placed the drink in front of Joey and laughed himself. “I think she’s going to know, your face is going to be the same colour as your fedora.”

 

“I don’t really care if she knows. She’s just going to break up with me anyway.” Joey sighed, not even seeming all that sad- just tired. Before Wheels had a chance to make a comment, Joey had taken a sip of his drink and was now gagging.

 

“Oh gross. Is this tea? You know I hate tea!” Joey winced, and placed the cup back down on the counter.

 

Wheels, once again, couldn’t hold back his laughter. He laughed until it hurt and he had to wipe tears away from his face. Joey was looking at him, smiling in amusement. There was something else in his eyes too, but Wheels couldn’t see it.

 

“Tea’s comforting.” Wheels offered as reply through his gasps for breath. Joey rolled his eyes and pushed the offending cup farther away from himself.

 

“You’re the only comfort I need, Wheeler.” Joey said in his slimiest, grossest picking up chicks voice. Wheels felt his face flush again, but was too distracted by the second round of laughter that shook through his body.

 

It was so comfortable to just sit there with Joey and talk about nothing. Random bits of conversation that didn’t really mean anything to either of them, saying things that could very well be considered flirting to anybody who was watching them without actually knowing them.

 

Joey reached his hand out and punched Wheels in the arm. Wheels yelped quietly and jerked away, dripping a little bit of tea onto the floor.

 

“What the hell? I think you’ve done enough punching for tonight!” Wheels spoke in his false-strict voice, the one he’d use when Joey and Snake got too distracted during rehearsal and he had to get them back to what they should be doing. Of course, that didn’t happen very often because everybody knew that it was Wheels and Joey that got distracted just being in each others’ presence and Snake who had to make sure that everything got done.

 

“Have you seen my face, Wheels? I didn’t do any punching!” Joey laughed, resting his hand on top of Wheels’, which should have been awkward but wasn’t.

 

“You didn’t even get first punch?” Wheels asked incredulously.

 

“It’s not self-defense if you throw the first punch!” Joey argued, his eyes still full of laughter no matter how serious he tried to make his face look. Wheels just couldn’t stop himself from laughing.

 

“You know, if you stopped making people so angry, you’d stop getting beat up.” Wheels pointed out, taking another long sip from his tea.

 

“Sure, but you’d hate not having an excuse to take care of me.” Joey waggled his eyebrows knowingly and Wheels coughed as he swallowed his drink too quickly.

 

“I think I’d be okay not having to be your personal nurse.” Wheels replied through coughs while Joey just smiled at him, eyebrow cocked upwards in disbelief.

 

“You love looking after me. It makes your life worth living.” Joey sing songed and Wheels shot him a withering look. “So, are you going to get me something decent to drink or am I going to die of dehydration?”

 

Wheels rolled his eyes with so much force that he was sort of afraid they were going to get stuck like that.

xxx

Year later, when asked about it, Wheels would tell anybody that the night Joey Jeremiah got the crap beat out of him by Dwanye in a park and wandered over to his house in the dark was his first date with Joey Jeremiah.

 This would spark an intense argument between the two men, in which Joey was adamant that their first date was going to see the shark movie. Wheels would point that not only was Snake supposed to be with them if he hadn’t canceled at the last minute, but they had only been ten years old so it couldn’t possibly have been a date.

Joey would then pout for the rest of night, because even years later- he didn’t like being wrong. He also still didn’t like tea.

 


End file.
